Daily Archives: November 6, 2008

Australia Poster Fails to Live Up to Continent’s Hype

Baz Luhrmann’s Australia won’t start screening until probably early the week of November 17, due to some characteristically last-minute tinkering by the filmmaker, but the poster has been out a while now, and it’s too vague a thing, conjuring up nebulous feelings of… I don’t know, a Down Under Pearl Harbor? Yes, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman are big-name draws, but they’re not romantic leads, never have been, and so the top-shelf lover’s clinch — while gorgeously hued — doesn’t grab a casual viewer. The backgrounded planes, wandering aboriginal kids, shotgun-toting ambler (Jackman in shadow) and setting sun, meanwhile, all come across as very W. Somerset Maugham. Which I don’t necessarily mean as a good thing, just from a commercial pitch point-of-view. After all, does anyone really remember The Painted Veil?